For a variety of purposes it may be necessary to subject laboratory or other research animals to radiation from radio-active isotope sources, e.g. to check the radio-protective effects of pharmaceuticals. Until now investigations of the effect of radiation upon animals have utilized more or less point radiation sources around which the animals may be assembled or caused to pass or which are moved around the animals.
The point radiation sources have not been found to be effective because of the falloff of the radiation field with distance from the central sources, the inability to subject numbers of animals efficiently to a uniform radiation field and the requirement that the animals repeatedly move past and around the sources to obtain the necessary degree and uniformity of irradiation.